Campus ecology identifies environmental factors and influences, which interact and affect individual behavior. These factors may be the physical setting or place, the human aggregate or characteristics of the people, organizational and social climate, and/or characteristics of the surrounding community. (NASPA, 2004, p. 7)

Because significant and dynamic interrelationships exist among these different levels of health determinants, interventions are most likely to be effective when they address determinants at all levels. Historically, the health field has focused on individual-level health determinants and interventions. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008, para. 18)

In the ecological model health status and behavior are the outcomes of interest (McLeroy, Bibeau, Steckler & Glanz, 1988, p. 355) and viewed as being determined by the following:

Public policy — Local, state, national, and global laws and policies.

Includes polices that allocate resources to establish and maintain a coalition that serves a mediating structure connecting individuals and the larger social environment to create a healthy campus. Other policies include those that restrict behavior such as tobacco use in public spaces and alcohol sales and consumption and those that provide behavioral incentives, both positive and negative, such as increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. Additional policies relate to violence, social injustice, green policies, foreign affairs, the economy, global warming.

Community — Relationships among organizations, institutions, and informational networks within defined boundaries.

National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and American College Personnel Association. (2004). Learning reconsidered: A campus-wide focus on the student experience. Washington, D.C.: National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and the American College Personnel Association. Retrieved May 1, 2012, from http://www.myacpa.org/pub/documents/learningreconsidered.pdf.